| Handcuffs have been used for centuries as a safe | | | | front of him, but law enforcement officials started |
| and effective way to restrain someone. However | | | | cuffing behind the back in the 1960s, which is the |
| there are some people who can manage to escape | | | | current protocol for the majority of police units. Since |
| from handcuffs using a variety of methods. Here are | | | | a person confined with their hands behind them is |
| some of those methods and the solutions law | | | | more likely to fall and injure himself, a law |
| enforcement personnel can take to successfully | | | | enforcement individual must be ready at all times to |
| confine a suspect. | | | | steady and stabilize the suspect. With practice some |
| In not only the United States, but also in Canada, | | | | talented individuals are able to move their cuffed |
| Great Britain, and Latin America one universal key | | | | hands from behind them to their front to make |
| opens almost all handcuffs. Recently, a patent was | | | | opening the handcuffs easier. Many handcuff models |
| even requested for a standard key that would fit | | | | offer more security with panels that lock over the |
| behind an officer's badge. While this is useful for law | | | | locking mechanism or an additional padlock between |
| enforcement personnel that need to loosen tight | | | | the cuffs. |
| handcuffs or transfer a suspect to another | | | | "During his shows, Harry Houdini was frequently |
| jurisdiction, it also means that many criminals need | | | | secured with multiple pairs of handcuffs. Any pair that |
| only obtain a key to be free of standard handcuffs. | | | | was too difficult to be picked was placed on his |
| Thankfully maximum security prisoners have special | | | | upper arms. Being very muscular, his upper arms |
| handcuffs that require a different key. Since police | | | | were far larger than his hands. Once he had picked |
| officers cuff suspects behind their back with the | | | | the locks on the lower pairs of handcuffs, the upper |
| palms facing outward and the lock upward, it makes | | | | pair could simply be slipped off." It is also physically |
| it far more difficult for a suspect to reach, much less | | | | possible, though quite difficult, to break the handcuff |
| open, a handcuff lock. Additionally, searching the | | | | chain entirely apart. Plastic zip ties can increase the |
| suspect either before or after he is handcuffed | | | | strength and durability of a pair of cuffs if needed. |
| ensures that he is not hiding a key somewhere upon | | | | Handcuffs are important to law enforcement |
| his person. | | | | agencies for restraining criminals and preventing |
| Historically a suspect's hands would be confined in | | | | further violence. |